Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species
Sabina Radeva, who wrote and illustrated this beautiful book, set herself quite a task on explaining Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution to children. She knows her science though – she’s a molecular biologist who was determined to mix science and art to make Darwin’s theory accessible for youngsters. She’s succeeded admirably by breaking it down into bite-sized chunks on principles such as instinct, natural selection and migration.
The book is picture-led; small amounts of text on each page mixed with annotations and speech bubbles make the science easy to digest. Every page turned reveals a vibrant, informative illustration which begs to be studied for details, such as clicking butterflies, hidden snakes, leaf-carrying ants, beetles, butterflies, fish, lizards and fossils. A spread on dogs, for instance, has uniform-looking wolves on one page, and six varieties of dogs – from pug to bloodhound – on the other, visually explaining how dogs have developed into 340 breeds from one kind of howling wolf.
Radeva regularly uses lyrical quotes from the original book, and appendices at the back provide more detail and up-to-date science on some outdated aspects of Darwin’s nineteenth-century text. There’s also a glossary, which could have been more effective if the words were highlighted in the main text.
This is a book that will appeal to a wide range of ages – older children will read it themselves, but younger ones will delight in looking at the illustrations and pointing out the details. It would also be a wonderful addition to a school library.
